Canada invites 3,400 Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residence

The Government of Canada issued 3,400 invitations to apply for Canadian permanent residence to Express Entry candidates in a draw held January 22.

The cut-off Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score in today’s draw was 471, a reduction of 2 points over the minimum score in the previous Express Entry draw held January 8.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has now issued a total of 6,800 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) in 2020 through the Express Entry system.

Canada has higher admissions targets for 2020 and 2021 for the various programs managed by the Express Entry system.

The target for new permanent resident admissions through the three federal high-skilled programs is slated to rise to 85,800 this year and 88,800 in 2021.

Find out if you are eligible to enter the Express Entry pool

The Express Entry immigration selection system

The Express Entry system is Canada’s primary source of skilled foreign workers. It was introduced in 2015 to manage the pool of candidates for three of Canada’s three federal high-skilled immigration programs — the Federal Skilled Worker Class, Federal Skilled Trades Class and Canadian Experience Class.

Eligible candidates for each program are issued a score under Express Entry’s Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS), which awards points for factors such as age, education, skilled work experience and proficiency in English or French.

While a job offer is not required in order to be eligible under the Express Entry system, the CRS does award additional points to candidates who have one.

A set number of the highest-scoring candidates are issued an Invitation to Apply (ITA) for Canadian permanent residence through regular draws from the pool, which typically take place every two weeks.

 

IRCC applied a tie-break time and date of May 9, 2019 at 01:16:02 UTC in this draw. This means that all candidates with a score of 471 who submitted their profile before this date and time received an ITA.

The Government of Canada has a processing standard of six months for permanent residence applications filed through the Express Entry system.

Canada’s PNP streams

Nine Canadian provinces and two territories have what are known as “enhanced” PNP streams that are linked to the Express Entry system.

These streams — many of which have lower or even no CRS score requirement — allow participating provinces and territories to select Express Entry candidates and invite them to apply for a provincial nomination for Canadian permanent residence.

Express Entry candidates who obtain a provincial nomination receive an additional 600 points toward their CRS score and are effectively guaranteed an ITA.

The following is a hypothetical example of candidates who would have obtained an ITA in the January 22 draw:

Virat and Mira are married and are 34 and 29 years old respectively. They each hold Masters degrees and have been working as web developers for 4 years. They also each wrote the IELTS and scored an 8 in listening and a 7 in reading, writing and speaking. They entered the pool with Mira as the principal applicant. While neither Mira or Virat have ever worked or studied in Canada, their CRS score of 472 would have been high enough to obtain an ITA during the January 22 Express Entry draw.

Find out if you are eligible to enter the Express Entry pool

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